Every Friday, 7IS Contributor Ryan Henning will take a look at what’s happening in the life of a former, possibly forgotten player. You may not think it’s important, but it must be important to someone.

It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? The picture we use for a Cold Stahoviak featured former athlete is his booking photo. During his career, he won a World Series with the Blue Jays and was a popular inclusion in trades. A year after his World Series championship, he was sent to San Diego. Two seasons later, he was involved in a 12 player trade, when the Houston Astros were traded for the San Diego Padres. He was traded another time, to the Mets in a paltry 5 player deal.

His last team was the Pirates, where he signed a free agent contract. He was signed to a 4.5 million dollar deal, and was competing for a starting spot. The only problem was he didn’t realize he was in a competition and reacted unfavorably. He said, rather famously that if he had to compete, he would go into “Operation Shutdown”.The comment has lived on in infamy in Pittsburgh. There is even a 2002 era article still lingering on ESPN on the topic. His baseball-reference page is sponsored by Acacia and states “Operation Shutdown – since 2002“. This is the coolest thing Acacia has ever done. There is a Pittsburgh Pirates blog entitled Operation Shutdown.  Anyone wishing to make fun of Bell better bite their tongue, however, because he go the last laugh. He never played for the Pirates but made 4.5 million dollars from them, and the Pirates, perhaps because they didn’t start Bell, haven’t had a winning season since.

Bell, however, isn’t the mastermind we might have thought. He blew enough of his career earnings, including his Pittsburgh based 4.5 mil, that he needed to hawk his World Series ring. The problem may not have been related entirely to the moving expenses related to being traded as many times as he was. As you may have inferred from the picture above, he has run afoul of the law a couple times recently, for riding the white pony, which Chalk can tell you is an expensive habit. Here’s hoping that Bell can straighten things out. I would say there is a decent chance the Pirates might be willing to take him back.

It’s been a while since the Wall Street Journal released their list of the most hated teams in sports a couple weeks ago. Cleveland was somehow atop the list. It was a conversational topic for several days. Apparently, the news that the Astros are the 4th most hated team in the game has just filtered it’s way down to Texas, then to New England. Syndicated columnist Jeff Vrabel took exception to this finding, blaming it entirely on computers, which ironically had the fodder for this column available to him on the internet over two weeks ago.

Anywho, I thought it might be beneficial for someone outside of Texas to inform the Astros and their fans why the rest of the world might hate them.

- They play in the NL Central, along with noted villain Lou Piniella

- The potentially crippling hill in the middle of center field.

- The whole Texas thing. If you live in Texas, you probably don’t understand. Sorry.

- The insistence on continually wearing some ugly uniforms, but not ever wearing Nolan Ryan era throwbacks.

- Remember Clemens? Pettitte? The only thing worse than being the Yankees is trying to be the Yankees.

- Traffic in Houston.

- Enron

I’m sure there are many more reasons that I haven’t been able to discern. I personally don’t hate the Astros, but that’s mostly because I don’t care about them.

Every Thursday, 7IS Contributor Ryan Henning will take a look at a rumor burning up the hot stove. You may not think it’s important, but it must be important to someone.

It’s a bad sign for your season when it is early May and one of your star players is already saying that he is willing to waive his no trade clause. It’s probably more telling that your star player is hitting .213 with 2 home runs, and the Astros likely couldn’t get much for 2 or 3 months of Berkman anyways.

Still, that’s why Berkman says he is OK with the idea of being traded. He is in the waning days of his contract, the season isn’t going well, and he claims he doesn’t want the team to get into a nowhere land of not getting better and not getting younger. The problem is, of course, that nobody will give up much for Berkman. They will trade their first baseman to a team like the Mariners who need a steady DH, while the Mariners will give the Astros some cash, not enough to sign anyone, probably, and certainly not any young players to develop. Maybe they could get someone who is playing Rookie ball.

The best part is, Berkman has made it clear that he would be willing to return to Houston at the end of his short tenure outside of the team. Let’s see, Berkman is OK with being traded so the Astros can get younger and/or better. Instead, the Astros likely end up with cash, which is used to resign Berkman again next season, meaning the team is a year older with the same player they traded in the first place.

The good news is, they have the division to turn things around rather quickly in the next couple of seasons. If only they had the players to trade for good prospects.

Did you know that MLB tells us which teams they think are the least popular (and hence suck the most)?

They do!

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Every Friday, 7IS Contributor Ryan Henning will take a look at what’s happening in the life of a former, possibly forgotten player. You may not think it’s important, but it must be important to someone.

This is Jerry Mumphrey.Would you know who I am talking about if I said that was former All Star Jerry Mumphrey? He was known for a season in 1980 in which he stole 50 bases. That paid of 4 years later in Houston when he earned his ticket to the Mid-Summer Classic. For the record, that season he hit .290 with 15 stolen bases. As a comparison, in his age 31 season, he compares best to Elmer Valo. Elmer Valo played during World War II, when most weren’t really following baseball.

Mumphrey was traded a whopping 5 times. Was he a problem in the clubhouse? Did everyone in the league just really need a center fielder that could hit #2, but not really provide a whole lot beyond that? The world may never know. Today, Jerry Mumphrey…. may not exist. There is a commenter who has usurped the name on a Cubs message board. Is it him? I don’t know!

I don’t know anything anymore about Jerry Mumphrey. That said, that is a great name for a guy who works IT at your company. I would poke around your IT department and look around for the guy who looks like he might have had an Afro in the 80s and could have swiped a base in his day, then ask him if he is Jerry Mumphrey. If you find him, please let me know. I would love to ask him a few questions.

For those of us who bought the MLB At Bat app for our respective mobile device, this weekend provided a bounty of free MLB.TV access.

The intent was to entice us with free live MLB video feeds, and as a result we’d all purchase MLB.TV subscriptions (which, even considering my jaded history with MLB.com Shop, is something I’ve been considering anyways).

We’ve read about MLB.TV’s troubles before, but what could go wrong on a weekend of freeness? Video and (odd) audio after the jump:

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There’s a woman’s hockey team out there that has a powerful lesson for the woeful Chicago Cubs this season, and I’m not overreacting.

The lone skater in white is a player for the North Vancouver Hot Shots, a woman’s hockey team who “competed” this past weekend in Las Vegas at the Canadian Hockey Enterprises Gambler’s Cup Hockey Tournament.

I use the term “competed” loosely.

Faced with a 2-1 deficit late in the Championship game versus the heroic, virtuous and stunningly beautiful Hockey Honeys of Calgary, the Hot Shots of North Vancouver quit. Literally. They skated off the ice with two minutes to go, awarding the Hockey Honeys the title by default.

As the saying goes, “when the going gets tough, quit.”

The North Vancouver Hot Shots knew they didn’t have a chance to overcome a deficit as steep at 2-1. They knew they lacked the strength, the fortitude, and the sports(wo)manship to see the game to its end. They knew they were outclassed, outmatched, outskilled, and outworked all game long, and they’d had enough.

And thanks to the righteous path taken by the North Vancouver Hot Shots women’s hockey team, we have a lesson for the Chicago Cubs men’s baseball team.

Quit.

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It turns out that every single MLB nickname is offensive. Stick with me here…

In name, the Fighting Sioux are no more, which opens the door to other sports teams changing their nicknames due in-part to political correctness. The problem with Major League Baseball is that every single team nickname is wildly offensive.

Baltimore Orioles - Sounds like Oreos, and obesity is killing the G-8 nations.

Boston Red Sox - Grammatically and democratically offensive, which is a double whammy.

New York Yankees – This name is far too sexual for America.

Tampa Bay Rays – Named after Rachael Ray, who offends anyone who has taste or dignity (or both).

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